API Communities Parenting with Nonviolence

Community safety

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Many barriers inhibit API families from addressing and preventing family violence. A common API cultural emphasis on avoiding shame tends to protect private family matters from outside awareness/influence. With 34% of local APIs limited English proficient, language barriers limit access to educational/supportive resources. 63% are foreign-born, and newer immigrants may be unfamiliar with U.S. laws pertaining to family violence. API parents may not have access to culturally appropriate models of nonviolent parenting, and escalating anti-immigrant rhetoric and anti-Asian hate inhibits public engagement with the broader community. Despite comprising 12% of the population, API children typically represent less than 2% of the LA Dept. of Children and Family Services caseload. When enormous cultural, linguistic, and institutional barriers prevent API families from learning how to practice nonviolence, the children experiencing violence in those families remain shrouded in silence and shame.

CPAF’s PEACE Parenting with Nonviolence program aims to transform family/community norms in the API community to align with protective factors against child abuse. The program equips API parents/caregivers with strategies to address the negative impacts of violence, adverse childhood experiences, and their root causes stemming from gender inequity and limited empathy, through “parenting with nonviolence” philosophy and practices. The ultimate impact of this project is to build resilience of API families to ensure children’s safety and well-being through establishing culturally appropriate norms on parenting with nonviolence.
CPAF has invested heavily in the development of the PEACE (Parenting with Empathy and Ahimsa for Child Empowerment) curriculum, a culturally responsive, evidence-informed parenting with nonviolence framework. CPAF uses this curriculum to provide training directly to parents/caregivers from diverse API communities. CPAF has also made these curriculum materials available to its community partners (translated in specific API languages), along with training and support on how to use them effectively to address the intergenerational dynamics identified in a research and violence prevention pilot project conducted with AAPI Equity Alliance and other community partners.
CPAF is continuing to cultivate a “community of practice” amongst parents, caregivers, and community partners in API communities, promoting a shared practice of parenting with nonviolence.

This program is successful when family/community norms in API communities shift toward “parenting with nonviolence,” generating multiple benefits.
PARENTS will experience increased awareness of their own parenting practices and harmful traditional norms/practices they may perpetuate. They will cultivate enhanced capacities to articulate their own needs/emotions (recognizing their own experiences of harm) and to express themselves toward their children through empathy and connecting communication. These nonviolent parenting practices will respect cultural values, leading to improved parent-child relationships and reduced family conflict.
CHILDREN will experience healthier emotional and psychological development by reducing exposure to violence and fostering a supportive home environment.
The broader COMMUNITY will experience strengthened community bonds by addressing common parenting challenges, promoting collective well-being, and reducing instances of family violence.

CPAF aims to mobilize and equip 30 Community Facilitators (from among staff and community partners) to plan and deliver ‘parenting with nonviolence’ workshops to 200 parents over the coming year. CPAF then expects 5 ‘master trainers’ to continue to train other Community Facilitators in diverse API communities and partner organizations to facilitate parenting with nonviolence work, with an additional 200 parents benefiting from the program each year.
CPAF has already piloted this work with a limited group of staff and community partners, and initial feedback from the community has been positive. CPAF utilizes retrospective feedback to ensure the program effectively meets its goals and benefits the participants, assessing pre-and-post knowledge of the participants. It also measures any shifts in participants’ attitudes and beliefs regarding nonviolent parenting. CPAF also collects qualitative information on program effectiveness through feedback and reflection.